Thursday, 20 September 2012

George Stone 1708-1764 : Bishop of Derry 1745-7

George Stone was born in London circa 1708, son of an eminent banker. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford graduating B.A. 1729; M.A. 1732; D.D. 1740. Stone may first have thought about a career in the army, but in the end he took Holy Orders. He arrived in Ireland as Chaplain to his patron, the Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset 1688-1765

It was the beginning of his meteoric rise to power that took Stone to the top of the ecclesiastical ladder in Ireland: Dean of Ferns, August 1733; Dean of Derry, March 1734; Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, August 1740; Bishop of Kildare (and Dean of Christ Church, Dublin), March 1743; Bishop of Derry, May 1745; Archbishop of Armagh, March 1747.

Stone was not yet forty years old when he became Archbishop of Armagh. His rapid success in gaining such preferment was largely due to his political and administrative connections. His brother, Andrew, was Private Secretary to the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State and later Prime Minister.

Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle 1693-1768

Access to such an influential English politician inevitably helped Stone to reach the dizzy heights of episcopal office. When the bishopric of Derry became vacant, for example, it was Newcastle himself who wrote to the Earl of Chesterfield, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, campaigning for Stone's translation to the northern diocese:

"My friend, the bishop of Kildare (Stone) will not discredit any station you may do the honour to place him in"

By rising through the church hierarchy, Stone was able to realize his considerable political ambitions. For it was politics rather than church affairs that dominated his thinking. His promotion to the primacy in March 1747 was therefore of great significance as it led to his appointment as Lord Justice. In this role he was able to exert a direct influence on government policy and patronage in Ireland. Yet his elevation to the episcopate, and in particular the primacy, was also a recognition of Stone's political importance. Since his arrival in the 1730s he had displayed an ability to cultivate support within the political arena. This was based on an impressive knowledge and understanding of the factional complexities of Irish parliamentary affairs. From the late 1740s to the early 1760s, his influence was to carry increasing weight. Consequently, no chief governor could afford to ignore Stone as his skill in managing the different parliamentary interests made him a very powerful and useful politician.

However, in playing the political power-broker, the Archbishop was not to be without enemies, and in the early 1750s he attracted a welter of criticism from discontented Irish grandees.

Henry Boyle, 1st Earl of Shannon 1682-1764

Henry Boyle (later Earl of Shannon) and the Earl of Kildare both felt that Stone had become too politically powerful (at their expense) for the good of the country. While he was eventually to patch up his quarrel with Boyle, Kildare remained implacable.

James Fitzgerald, 1st Duke of Leinster 1722-1773, styled Lord Offlay until 1744 and known as the Earl of Kildare between 1744 and 1761 and as the Marquess of Kildare between 1761 and 1766.

In the earl's opinion, Stone was, and always would be, a man of insatiable greed: "he made use of his influence to invest himself with temporal power, and affected to be a second Wolsey in the state"

Stone died, unmarried, on the 19th December 1764 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. He is said to have given the domingo mahogany organ in St. Columb's Cathedral, the case of which can be seen in the west gallery.

St. Columba

St. Canice

St. Adamnan (Eunan)

St. Fiacra

Lived at some time in the 7th century. He came from Conwall, near Letterkenny. He went to Paris, where he set up hospices for the sick and poor. He used to gather them up in the streets and take them to his hospices in a rickshaw-like vehicle. Thus, to this day, one French word for taxi is Fiacre.

James Ussher (1581 – 1656)

Archbishop of Armagh. Translated from Meath; nominated 29 January 1625; by letters patent 21 March 1625; also Bishop of Carlisle 1641-1656; died 21 March 1656.

John Bramhall (1594 – 25 June 1663)

Archbishop of Armagh, Anglican theologian and apologist.

Michael Boyle, the younger (1609–1702)

Boyle became privy councillor in Ireland, and was appointed Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. In 1675 Boyle was promoted from the see of Dublin to that of Armagh.

Narcissus Marsh (1638 – 2 November 1713)

Successively Church of Ireland Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, Archbishop of Cashel, Archbishop of Dublin and Archbishop of Armagh.

Hugh Boulter (4 January 1672 – 27 September 1742)

Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, the Primate of All Ireland, from 1724 until his death.

John Hoadly (1678–1746)

Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin from 1727 to 1730 and as Archbishop of Dublin from 1730 to 1742 and Archbishop of Armagh from 1742 until his death.

George Stone (1708 – 19 December 1764)

In 1733 Stone was made Dean of Ferns, and in the following year he exchanged this deanery for that of Derry. In 1740 he became Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, in 1743 Bishop of Kildare, in 1745 Bishop of Derry, and in 1747 Archbishop of Armagh. During the two years that he occupied the See of Kildare he was also Dean of Christ Church, Dublin.

Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby (1708–1794)

Robinson came to Ireland as chaplain to the Duke of Dorset in 1751. He was translated from the See of Kildare to the Archbishopric of Armagh in 1765.

The Most Reverend William Stuart PC, D.D. (1755–1822)

Bishop of St David's in Wales from 1794 and 1800 and then Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland from 1800 to his death.

The Most Rev. William Alexander (1824-1911)

After holding several livings in Ireland he was made bishop of Derry and Raphoe in 1867, to which see he was nominated on 27 July and consecrated on 6 October 1867. He was the last bishop of Ireland to sit in the Westminster House of Lords before the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871 by the Irish Church Act 1869. On 25 February 1896 he translated to become Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.

The Rt Rev Robert Clayton (1695–1758)

In 1735 he was translated to the diocese of Cork and Ross, and in 1745 to the diocese of Clogher.

The Rt Rev George Berkeley (1685-1753)

Bishop of Cloyne.

The Rt Rev William Pakenham Walsh, DD, MA (1820-1902)

Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin

Most Reverend Charles Frederick D'Arcy (1859–1938), MA, DD, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All

Right Reverend Dr Charles T. P. Grierson (1857–1935), Bishop of Down and Dromore

The Rt Rev Benjamin Hoadly (1676-1761)

Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester.

The Rt Rev John Thomas (1696-1781)

Bishop of Peterborough 1747, and was made preceptor to the future George III, then Prince of Wales, in 1752. In 1757 be became Bishop of Salisbury, and in 1761 Bishop of Winchester

Brownlow North (1741-1820)

Dean of Canterbury (1770–1771), Bishop of Lichfield in 1771, Bishop of Worcester in 1774, and Bishop of Winchester in 1781.

Richard Hurd (1720-1808)

Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry and Worcester

James Cornwallis, 4th Earl Cornwallis

Rector of Ickham from 1769–73, of Addisham-with-Staple from 1770–81, of Newington in 1770, Prebendary of Westminster Abbey from 1770–85, Vicar of Wrotham from 1771–85, Rector of Boughton Malherbe from 1773–85 and Dean of Canterbury from 1775-81. In 1781 he was appointed Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry and was Dean of Windsor from 1791–94 and Dean of Durham from 1794 before dying in office in 1824.